3 Questions to Check your Stress Levels: Lessons from a farmers field
The sun was shining and it was that special time of the evening when the light feels other-worldly.
Especially in spring when the sun still feels like a delicious luxury.
I wasn’t feeling very magical however.
I was stuck in my car behind a tractor that was blocking the road.
Luckily I wasn’t running late so it wasn’t going to cause me major issues but I still felt the flare of annoyance.
That flash of irritation that flushes through your whole body.
Without my attention, the agitation fizzled out but I was left with the traces of it. The slight frown, the pursed lips.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a rush of movement in the field next to me.
That’s when it all changed
5 little lambs were racing each other up and down the hedgerow.
One of the gang couldn’t quite keep up so he would wait half way and as they bundled back down he’d join back in.
They didn’t seem to remotely tire of the game and there didn’t seem to be any obvious purpose but oh wow, they looked so pleased with themselves each time they finished a lap.
Watching them completely transformed my mood and reminded me that glimpses of the good are often just a heartbeat away.
If bouncing lambs in their full playful vitality doesn’t melt your heart then I don’t know that we can still be friends!
For me it was just the lift I needed.
Can you trust?
One of the big reasons for stress taking a foothold in our lives is a lack of trust.
You might be shaking your head now and saying “No Laura! It’s the many, many tricky things I’m having to deal with that are causing me stress!!”.
And of course that’s also true.
Especially this year.
When I say ‘trust’ I mean two key beliefs:
- I can cope with whatever comes
- Nothing that comes will last forever
If I trust that even in my darkest moments, there will be things to be grateful for and uplifted by it makes a difference.
It’s like knowing the light switch is there, even if you haven’t switched it on. The dark doesn’t feel so dark anymore.
When life is hard it can feel really hard to trust in that way.
The first step is to notice that you’re in a place of not trusting. That sounds easy right? But when you’re overwhelmed, it can be hard to cut through the noise of daily life.
So what can you do when life feels too hard to trust?
If it feels hard to cope with what life is throwing your way right now, perhaps it’s time to reflect.
When you have a suspicion that your trust has disappeared, these 3 questions are a useful place to start.
The way I find most helpful is to grab a notebook, pen and a cuppa and give myself a window of time to reflect:
- Do I feel anxious when I think about setbacks happening in my day or week?
That might be tension in my body, a racing heart, brain fog, overthinking, repetitive “what if’s”
2. When I do have a setback in my day or week, am I behaving in ways that are not helpful?
That could be distracting myself, avoiding situations, overthinking or using something to avoid the feelings (chocolate and ice cream, that extra glass of wine, shopping I don’t need, Netflix binges beyond where it feels good)
3. If I look back at my day or week, do I tend to focus on the things that I found challenging?
Am I finding myself stuck in rumination, going over and over things that have happened?
So what did you find?
Sometimes when I reflect in this way I get a shock.
Minute by minute as I go through my days I don’t necessarily feel stressed.
And yet when I reflect on the way I’m reacting to things, I can see that actually I am!
Having stress in our lives is unfortunately a certainty in this modern world we live in.
However, I always have a choice about whether I FEEL stressed.
If you regularly find that you feel tense, it’s hard to unwind and you’re not managing daily life without either resorting to distraction or behaving in ways you don’t like, it could be a sign that you need a daily dose of calm.
Research shows that even micro moments of mindful attention will make a difference to how your body and mind process stress.
This doesn’t just make you feel better, but it improves your immune system functioning and your cognitive clarity.
So you’ll be making better decisions, feeling better and so be more able to focus on what matters to you.
Don’t worry! I have your back!
It can be really hard to know how to create moments that turn down the dial on stress.
If it was really as simple as just deciding to let go of stress then we’d all be super chilled, right?
How would it feel to have a little oasis arrive in your inbox every single day for 21 days?
Well that’s exactly what happens when you sign up for the Be. 21 Day Stress and Overwhelm Detox.
You’ll receive a short training each day (around 3–5 minutes), a simple practice (from as little as 2 minutes) and a bonus practice to apply meditation to situations in your life.
That’s it.
Super simple.
You can just follow along and discover how much easier it is than you ever imagined to find calm, clarity and focus when you release the stress and pressure.
You’ll also be able to join me live every day in my Be.More Membership Community for meditation.
Plus, you can book a free 30 minute 1:1 with me at the end of your programme to help you implement all you’ve experienced into your daily life.
I’d love to know what you think… Let’s find our way back to trust together.
Laura x
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”Eckhart Tolle
Originally published at https://www.bemodernmeditation.com on April 30, 2021.